In a new report from the Institute of Water Resources at the United Nations University, it is stated that the world is facing a phenomenon that can be described as "global water bankruptcy." According to the UN, approximately 6.1 billion people, or about 75% of the world's population, live in areas where freshwater supplies are unstable or under critical threat.
Every year, nearly 4 billion people experience acute water shortages for at least one month.
Since the early 1990s, there has been a significant loss of water resources: half of the largest lakes in the world are losing water, 70% of major groundwater supplies are showing long-term depletion, and more than 40% of the water used for irrigation comes from depleting sources. Over the past half-century, the area of wetlands has decreased by nearly 410 million hectares, and the mass of glaciers in several regions has decreased by more than 30%.
The water crisis manifests itself differently in various regions: in the Middle East and North Africa, it is exacerbated by climate risks and low agricultural productivity; in South Asia, by intensive irrigation use and urban growth; and in the southwestern United States, by a persistent deficit in the Colorado River basin.
UN experts emphasize that the main problem lies not in the amount of available water but in inadequate resource management. They call for the water crisis to become a priority in political decisions, as well as for the establishment of a global monitoring system and the abandonment of projects that harm water ecosystems.
